I Have a Couple of Questions

後輩

1) How do I know when to continue to the next chapter in a textbook?
I'm using Kakehashi Beginner-Intermediate Japanese Textbook. I really love the way it explains grammar (currently no vocab lists until chapter 7). I get bored re-reading the chapter, but I still feel as though I need to stay and go over it, even though I'm not learning anything new.

2) How did you learn kanji?
I tried learning kanji using Memrise, but the reviews became too much for me, Heisig was even worse and I felt it was a waste of time and money the way he implements things. Overall, I just stopped learning kanji because I wasn't fluent in it, and I realized it was stupid to try to learn when I barely knew any vocabulary. I love writing, so stroke order is a must for me.

3) Any Influent users here?
The language learning game on steam? I love how it's all and interactive game and it made me want to learn more and more, but I'm sad that it only has the apartment and not other levels.

4) Any other tips to help me learn?
Examples, sites you use, ways you study, how you study, etc.

1) You don't need to read the same chapter over and over; you can always come back later to look something up that you aren't sure about any more. When I started out (with the Genki textbooks) I read every chapter only once, and it turned out that that was enough. Also keep in mind that textbooks are incomplete anyway: even after having read all of it, you'll still keep encountering new words and grammar in real-life texts for a long time to come.

2) Kanji can come later - grammar is more important. Spend some time learning basic grammar and vocab first and doing reading practice; I'm assuming your textbook also comes with plenty of texts that use no or minimal kanji. And yes, I also don't see the point in Heisig (i.e. learning only the meaning of kanji, without pronunciations or sample words)

3) From what I've seen of it, it just teaches you a handful of words, many of which English loanwords. Didn't seem terribly useful to me really...

4) The most important thing is to study every day (to the point that it becomes an automatic habit) and avoid getting bored, frustrated or overwhelmed.

後輩

2) Kanji can come later - grammar is more important. Spend some time learning basic grammar and vocab first and doing reading practice; I'm assuming your textbook also comes with plenty of texts that use no or minimal kanji. And yes, I also don't see the point in Heisig (i.e. learning only the meaning of kanji, without pronunciations or sample words)

The vocabulary lists in Genki also show the kanji writing next to the hiragana, even before giving the first kanji list that starts with 一, 二, 三. Just because they're there doesn't mean you have to start remembering them already.

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